Quality factor temperature dependence of a surface phonon polariton resonance cavity

• Published in: Applied physics letters Vol. 105; no. 11; p. 114107
• Main Authors: Hammonds, James S., Stancil, Kimani A., Stokes, Charlezetta E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Melville American Institute of Physics 15-09-2014
• Subjects: Applied physics; Chromium; Energy dissipation; Gold; Holes; Polaritons; Q factors; Quality; Silicon dioxide; Temperature; Temperature dependence
• ISSN: 0003-6951; 1077-3118
• DOI: 10.1063/1.4895071

We consider the surface phonon polariton coupling in an SiO2 optical cavity with 250 nm metal (gold (Au)/chrome (Cr)) side walls, and find a temperature dependence of the quality factor, Q=ωo/Δω. By using optical cavities of varying widths between parallel metal walls and FTIR-ATR measurements, we first observe that the quality factor obeys an inverse power law dependence on the width. And by relating the widths to the optical path length, and ultimately to the temperature using the general thermo-optical coefficient, we show the quality factor temperature dependence. We argue that the temperature dependence of the quality factor is a practical and almost universal result that describes the energy dissipative behavior of both mechanically and optically responsive systems.